ASTON, Pa. – The Manhattanville College women's basketball team picked up another win today, Dec. 16 over Neumann University. The Valiants scored the first bucket of the day and maintained the lead throughout the whole game. Manhattanville beat the Knights 70-53 and scored just under 50 points in the first half. In her eight years as a Valiant, tonights win over Neumann was Coach Kate Vlahakis 100th victory. 

As her time as a Valiant, Vlahakis' overall record as of today is 100-82. She currently sits second in most career wins with a winning percentage of .54. She has produced one D3Hoops.com All-Region, two MBWA All-Met and 12 MAC Freedom All Conference players. This season she has coached a player to 45 points in a single-game which set a new program record. She is also the first women's basketball coach in 33 years to score over 100 points. Her and the squad are now tied for second in program history for the highest scoring game ever. They tied the 1986 record set against Bard College as the final score read 103-43.

Junior Amanda Pemberton (Las Vegas, Nev./Liberty) stole the ball away from Neumann (4-6,0-0 Atlantic East) in the opening seconds of the game. She then came down and the pulled up for a jumper to start the game off for the Valiants (6-1,3-1 Skyline). Following Pemberton, freshman Madison Fields (Grantsville, Utah/Grantsville) was fouled as she went up for a layup. Fields sunk the layup and made her granted free throw to put Manhattanville ahead 5-0. Three three-pointers were made in the first, two were banked by junior Sarah Coutu (Cranston, R.I./Cranston East) and junior Spencer Shore (Boca Raton, Fla./West Boca Raton) had the other.
 
Sophomore Claudia Valentin (Cambridge, Mass./Cambridge Rindge & Latin School) opened the second up for the Valiants with two back-to-back layups. Her second basket put the Valiants up by 10 points. After two made free throws by the Knights, Pemberton grabbed a defensive rebound and pushed the ball to Valentin. She then passed the ball over to Coutu who sunk another three. To up the score 36-22 Pemberton dished the ball out to sophomore Ali Mikaele (Silver Spring, Md./St. Andrew's Episcopal School) who made her first bucket of the day. The Valiants put up 25 points in the second quarter and ended the half 48-31.
 
Pemberton sunk the first shot of the second half but then the Valiants went dry for three minutes. Valentin broke the drought with a fast break jump shot in the paint that was assisted by sophomore Faith Johnson-Desilvia (Riverhead, N.Y./Riverhead). Pemberton made a second chance bucket after she got the offensive rebound off of Shore's missed jumper and then made a jumper of her own.
 
In the fourth quarter the Knights held the Valiants to only nine points. It took Manhattanville almost three minutes to score their first point. Coutu went up for a jumper, made it and was fouled on the way down. She later stole the ball from Neumann passed it off to Fields who was also fouled. Fields made her first free throw to up the score 65-49. After she missed the second shot Fields went down to the other end of the court to block the Knights' layup attempt. She also recovered the rebound off of this play.
 
Shore and Johnson-Desilvia were the last scorers for the Valiants. Shore notched another three and Johnson-Desilvia made both of her granted free throws.
 
Coutu was the leading scorer for the Valiants once again with 20 points as Valentin followed with 13. Valentin shot 5-5 from the floor and made .50 of her free throws. Fields grabbed the most rebounds totaling 10 and Valentin followed with eight.
 
Manhattanville will take a break and return to the court on Monday, Dec. 30 after the holiday break. The Valiants will travel to Jamaica, N.Y., to play York College at 1:00 p.m.